As the ballet dancers moved through the familiar rituals of their daily class, they tried to ignore the gunshots and explosions outside. It was 1979, and Iran was in the midst of a revolution that would overthrow the ruling Shah and turn the country into an Islamic republic. The dancers were the last few members of the Iranian National Ballet. On a recent video call from her home in Herndon, Va., she recalled what happened next: the National Ballet, which had been founded in 1958 and had grown and flourished, ended. “All of the foreign dancers in the company had already left,” she said.

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Persons: Bahareh Sardari, ” Organizations: Iranian National Ballet, National Ballet Locations: Iran, Herndon , Va, Islamic Republic